Nigel Rees - A Word In Your Shell-Like стр 11.

all jam and Jerusalem A popular misconception of the local Womens Institute groups in the UK is that their members are solely concerned with making jam, flower arranging and singing the Blake/Parry anthem Jerusalem. This encapsulation is said to date from the 1920s. Simon Goodenoughs history of the movement was called Jam and Jerusalem (1977).

all joints on the table shall/will be carved Table manners instruction, i.e. elbows off the table. Casson/Grenfell (1982) has it as well as, No

uncooked joints on the table, please.

all mouth and trousers Describing a type of man who is all talk rather than sexually active or successful (compare the earlier all prick and breeches). Since the mid-20th century? Slanguage describes it now as an insulting (non-sexual) catch phrase. From BBC radios Round the Horne (15 May 1966): There he goes, his kilt swinging in the breeze all mouth music and no trousers.

all my eye and Betty Martin Meaning, nonsense. OED2 finds a letter written in 1781 by one S. Crispe stating: Physic, to old, crazy Frames like ours, is all my eye and Betty Martin (a sea phrase that Admiral Jemm frequently makes use of). Grose (1785) has Thats my eye betty martin, an answer to any one that attempts to impose or humbug. The phrase is used in Punch (11 December 1841). Apperson has Only your eye and Miss Elizabeth Martin in 1851. The shorter expressions all my eye or my eye predate this. As to how it originated, Brewer (1894) has the suggestion (from Joe Miller, 1739) that it was a British sailors garbled version of words heard in an Italian church: O, mihi, beate Martine [Oh, grant me, blessed St Martin], but this sounds too ingenious and, besides, no prayer is known along those lines. Probably there was a Betty Martin of renown in the 18th century (Partridge/Catch Phrases finds mention of an actress with the name whose favourite expression is supposed to have been My eye!) and her name was co-opted for popular use. Some people use a Peggy Martin version.

all of a doodah In a state of dithering excitement. Known by 1915. From P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit, Chap. 14 (1954): A glance was enough to show me that he [Uncle Tom] was all of a doodah.

all of a tiswas Meaning, confused, in a state. Known by 1960. This might be from an elaboration of tizz or tizzy and there may be a hint of dizziness trying to get in. But no one really knows. The acronym of Today Is Saturday, Wear A Smile seems not to have anything to do with the meaning of the word and to have been imposed later. The acronym-slogan was the apparent reason for the title Tiswas being given to a childrens TV show (UK 197482), famous for its buckets-of-water-throwing and general air of mayhem. Broadcast on Saturday mornings, its atmosphere was certainly noisy and confused.

all ones Christmasses have come at once When one has benefited from lots of luck or been snowed under with gifts. Since the second half of the 20th century?

(to say that) all ones geese are swans Meaning, to exaggerate or overestimate the worth of ones children/pupils/anyone dear to one and to see them in an especially rosy light. Burtons The Anatomy of Melancholy, Democritus to the Reader (1621), has All his Geese are swannes. The actor David Garrick wrote to the Duke of Devonshire about a visit to Milan (1763) and the warmth of his reception by the Governor of Lombardy: You would think, as You Usd to say to me, that all my Geese were Swansthere was no Civility that I did not receive from him. Horace Walpole wrote of Sir Joshua Reynolds (in a letter of 1786): All his own geese are swans, as the swans of others are geese.

all our yesterdays From Macbeths speech in Shakespeares Macbeth, V.v.22 (1606): To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, / To the last syllable of recorded time; / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! / Lifes but a walking shadow; a poor player,/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,/ And then is heard no more: it is a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing. This speech has proved a rich source of title phrases. Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a film (US 1932); All Our Yesterdays was the title of Granada TVs programme (196073) devoted to old newsreels and of the actor Edward G. Robinsons memoirs (1974); The Way to Dusty Death was the title of a 1973 novel by Alastair Maclean; Brief Candles was the title of a collection of short stories (1930) by Aldous Huxley; Told By an Idiot was a 1923 novel by Rose Macaulay; full of sound and fury is echoed in the title of William Faulkners novel The Sound and The Fury (1929).

all over bar the shouting Almost completely over, finished or decided, except for any talking and argument that will not alter the outcome. Said of a contest or event.

Of sporting origin, with the shouting, say, the appeal against a referees decision in boxing. Known since 1842 (in the form but the shouting). Groucho Marx says All over but the shooting in The Cocoanuts (US 1929). A Cole Porter song (1937) has the title Its All Over But the Shouting. But if the Rhodesia affair is all over bar the shouting, can the same be said about South Africa? Western Morning News (25 September 1976); He seems to be giving the impression the pay round is all over bar the shouting. He couldnt be more wrong, she said The Times (15 May 1995).